Daily Devotions from The Word Of God… From the heart of Ed Algreen

Scripture

Bible Text:34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin.”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of God shall overshadow you; so the baby born to you will be utterly holy—the Son of God. 36 Furthermore, six months ago your Aunt Elizabeth—‘the barren one,’ they called her—became pregnant in her old age! 37 For every promise from God shall surely come true.”

38 Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” And then the angel disappeared.

Bible Translation: The Living Bible (TLB)

My Take

I believe that in a normal church setting, there may be several interpretations of the subject: ‘A Willing Servant’. But before we look closer to how these words were used by Mary, let look at the whole scenario. In today’s society, can you imagine how a pastor or elder(s) might react if a mom or dad stood in a regular church meeting and publicly declared that their innocent 16 year old daughter is pregnant, and she claims that God spoke to her about carrying some special embryo to term? Now imagine if they carried it further by trying to convince fellow attendees that this is a very special occasion for their daughter, because she never had relations with a man, but she did have a visit with an angel! “OK, next” we might say, “so, who can beat that story!” Now with that as a backdrop, let’s look closely at how Mary handled a very similar experience, and what some might be saying about that story. For Mary was approached by an angel – sounding wild yet? Mary was also told that she was highly favored – ok, so let me guess the young man was about 5’8″ and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, right? No, the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she would become pregnant – now this is sounding like one of those highly fictional stories that some folk really get a kick out of reading! Wait there’s more, her auntie who is very old and been barren all of her life, will also become pregnant – by now, most would have totally closed minds about this whole story, because they would jump to the conclusion that someone has gone beyond any sense of reality. But friends, I want us to stop this Christmas and understand that everything about the coming of Jesus is the miraculous work of our Father. It was foretold through the prophets, and it all comes with a very special bonus, because through the eventual shedding of His blood – (Jesus, that same infant that we celebrate at Christmas), we can have eternal life in heaven with He and His Father (God)! However, back to Mary. May I suggest that Mary must have already had some great principles about herself and knew God intimately already? For instead of rejection, and being obstinate in trying to protect against anything that could possible damage her relationship with her fiancé, Joseph, she simply responded in verse 38 that as a servant of the Most High, and she humbly accepted the challenge, and was prepared to do whatever God said. I wonder how many, so called, ‘servants of God’ would be prepared to repeat that type of commitment by Mary the next time we ask God to bless us in our ministries? That may mean us laying bare before God and telling Him that we are His willing servant, and that we would be willing to do whatever He dictates, so that we might be the teacher, or preacher, or deacon or elder, or pastor, or children’s worker, that He wants us to be. Friend, unless you are totally sold out to God, that word ‘whatever‘ could very easily cause you way more than you would ever bargain for, so use that word only if you truly mean it!

Prayer

Lord, You know us better than we know ourselves, and You know which of us carry that title ‘Christian’ out of sincerity in our relationship with You, and which of us do it out of convenience, popularity, or even public image. You created us Lord, and You know us intimately. May I humbly ask that You gently nudge the hearts of those that have not accepted Your call on their lives at all, and on those who may just be pretending and therefore fooling themselves and their family? Father, I believe that our time here on this earth, and especially our usefulness here on this earth, is drawing to a close. This precious young lady (Mary) has shown us the importance of being ready to accept Your call on our life. This may vary drastically, because there are folk of all walks of life that need to be reached for the Kingdom. You are God, and only You can direct us into the ways of God and to the people that need You in some way today. As exampled by Mary, may I be the first to say that I am Your humble servant and ask that Your mighty will be done in my life so that I might honestly and faithfully commit to all that You would have me do. Please also speak to the hearts of my readers who are willing to make such a commitment today. AMEN!

Footnote

If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go towww.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you atBible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!